Hoi,
When you say that we are an on-line community, you are basically wrong. We
are many communities. We do not share one cause; as you state yourself we
have many causes. Not stating that the NPOV is an essential part of our
efforts is a major failing because there are projects that fail this
criteria. By not stating that this is essential to a Wikipedia, the
Wikimedia Foundation does not have the moral right to intervene where this
is lacking.
When you argue that we have to be clear what our principles are, when you
mean that NPOV is one of these principles. Please say so. At some stage the
WMF will say what the minimum requirements are with respect to licensed
materials in our projects. I think the notion of NPOV is more important than
the notion of freely licensed material. The notion of providing information
without bias is much more relevant than the information being Free.
I will immediately state that the notion of Freely licensed information is
dear to me. However what is its value if it is biased, when you are left
guessing if the data is intended to be the best it can be or that you have
to appreciate what the bias of any of a WMF project is. A bias that can be
different depending on the language...
No, it is absolutely vital to be clear about what the basis is of our
projects. Free and NPOV have to be core values for all of our projects in
all of our languages.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 2/26/07, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
On 2/26/07, Berto 'd Sera <albertoserra(a)ukr.net> wrote:
No, sorry. A rule is a rule when it's clearly
expressed and people are
aware
of it. A rule that is not written is... a desire,
a convention if you
wish.
Whatever you'll call it, but not a rule.
Otherwise there cannot be any
warranty for anyone. Applying unwritten rules depending on judges' mood
is
the ABC of dictatorial states.
We're not a nation state but an online community of people freely
associating around a clearly identified cause (to build an
encyclopedia, to write a dictionary, and so on). We need not spell out
every single possible behavior that would be detrimental to that
identified cause, though we should be clearer about the broad
principles that help us to achieve it.
--
Peace & Love,
Erik
DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.
"An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
free and exciting is waking up." -- Ming the Mechanic
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